The Closer Live Wire S04E04 (TNT)

The Closer is an American police drama starring Kyra Sedgwick, who plays a Deputy Chief of Police at the LAPD. Sedgwick plays Brenda Leigh Johnson, an ex-CIA interrogator. She is a southern belle and her easy going charm has surprised more than one criminal during an interrogation. She always gets the bad guys. She was put in charge of the Priority Homicide division of the LAPD.

She’s had to deal with conflict from Commander Taylor, chief of detectives, since she was promoted over him from the outside to her current position. Her team are seasoned veterans, some close to retiring like Lt Provenza, others like Sgt Gabriel just a few years into their police careers.

Her personal life wasn’t always as stable as it is right now. She’s currently engaged to an FBI Agent named Fritz Howard, who helps her from time to time on some cases. They’ve just sold Brenda’s bungalow and moved into a temporary space as they search for a new house to buy.

Brenda is a severe workaholic, to the sacrifice of her personal relationships. She tends to micro-manage her investigations and take a close look at details. She loves junk food and sweets but is currently trying to lay off them. She usually hides all types of junk food in drawers, purses, and other places. She is also known to be a “bit of a slob”, commenting that she does not often get around to housework every day in one episode, and in another, during a small argument between her and Fritz over where her mail was, Fritz comments that “if she looked at her mail daily instead of once a week, she would know where they keep it”.

The Closer is one of the best police dramas on television right now and is in its fourth season on TNT. Each summer sees 13 episodes. A feature length episode is shown over the holidays.

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This was a great episode. The chief actually puts her relationship with Fritzi in jeopardy in order to pursue a case. Needless to say that Fritz isn’t happy. He makes it plain an clear that they was that she proceeded was bang out of order.

When a man wearing a camera and a wire is found murdered, the chief has to find out what exactly happened. This case involves the FBI and showcases how ruthless the chief can be in order to close a case. Her skills as a CIA interrogator always come in handy.

Another great one for TNT.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

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The chief arrives at the scene. She was called by Ricky Ramos. He heard the shots. The victim was wearing a wire. A CI or a cop. When Ricky wants to write his story immediately, he’s taken into custody to make his statement.

Provenza finds that the vic was wearing custom shoes. There is a number there. He’ll run it. The vic had a camera which was transmitting nearby. They could have recorded the murder. Buzz says that the camera is pretty sophisticated. It’s brand new. Flynn says that it can’t be theirs.

Provenza says that his name is Ben Masters. He’s a real estate agent. Daniels says that the feds aren’t claiming him. Since the ID has been made, she has Daniels run his name by the feds again.

The range for the camera is about a mile. His phone was hit by the phone.

Daniels and Gabriel have a little bit of awkwardness at the office. She tells him that she doesn’t want to talk about it right now. Provenza says that Ben used to work for a real estate company and got downsized.

Johnson heads to the vic’s house with Lt Tao. They meet Patricia, the vic’s wife. She talks about a $100K bonus.

Gabriel comes to see the chief. He apologizes for the outburst earlier today. He broke up with Daniels a few weeks ago. He wants Daniels transferred out. Daniels walks in. In the past 5 months, he’s borrowed over $200K on the equity of his house. He hasn’t received a paycheck since then. A few weeks ago, he paid off over half of his debt in cash.

The chief tells Gabriel that if he thinks that the cohesiveness of the unit has been affected, he can transfer out himself. Masters had a key to a company lockbox.

They go see Fritzi. He was able to crack the prepaid cell phone that Masters had. There are dozens of calls between Masters and a South American gang. He was taking a lot of business trips. The last call came in 20 minutes before he got shot.

Provenza, Sanchez and Flynn are searching for the car. Provenza is pissed off. Flynn finds the car. It looks like he was living in the car. They don’t find the computer there. They know which building they have to search.

They find the place where Masters was pretending to go to work to. It’s an apartment. They find the laptop. He gets a call. He tells the person that he wants what they stole from him. He gets shot a few minutes later. They didn’t see much on the murder. However, Ramos wasn’t telling the truth. He was seen going through the pockets of the victim. They tell him that they want him to write a story, or he’ll be charged with a criminal offense. They want the killer to know that they found a camera and that they are trying to find the tape. They are trying to flush him out to look for the tape.

Fritzi wants to take over the case so that he can take down the gang. Brenda wants the entire file on the gang in exchange. In exchange, Brenda will back down from trying to nab the killer at the Master’s crib.

Of course she doesn’t. They nab him easily.

Patricia arrives. She knows Dean Murphy. He went to high school with Ben. She wants to see the murder. She read the story in the LA Times. She breaks down. Murphy got involved in drugs. He’s the guy they nabbed.

Buzz and Provenza have headphones on and are watching Gabriel and Daniels arguing in an interview room. They are eating popcorn. It’s pretty funny. Johnson isn’t happy. She tells Gabriel and Daniels to go wait in her office.

The chief takes her façade as an ineffective investigator. Murphy denies that he was working for the gang. She wants Murphy to take off his ring. The ring is the same as in the video.

Pope asks Provenza about the test that Tao is performing. It’s just a ruse to make Murphy confess to the murder.

Fritzi arrives at the station. He isn’t happy.

Murphy says that there were some extenuating circumstances. One day last year, he came back to see Masters. He had Masters carry dope across the border. He paid him to do it. Murphy borrowed some coke for another deal. Masters was pissed. He was going to tell Raoul, their handler.

The chief is informed that the FBI is outside the door. She tells Murphy that the FBI is going to give him a deal. All that the chief can give him is life in prison without the chance of parole. The South Americans will whack him as soon they can if he’s outside. Murphy decides to take his chances with the FBI.

The chief hands him over to Fritzi. She’s unhappy and Fritzi is unhappy. The chief goes to have some chocolate in her office. Gabriel and Daniels are waiting in her office. They both apologize. She gives them an order. Work it out. She tears up the transfer request.

At home, Fritzi says that Murphy is on his way back to the LAPD. They weren’t able to convince him to roll on el Jéfé. Fritzi is livid at Brenda manipulating his case. She’s playing with his case. The most important thing for Brenda is to close her case, that’s all that matters. She didn’t think twice about exploiting Fritzi to get what she wanted. If he would have pulled the same thing on her, she would have had the locks changed.